Spat erupts over claim CIA spied on US Senate panel

A public row erupted Tuesday between the CIA and the US lawmakers who oversee its intelligence work, with the agency’s director angrily denying claims it spied on Senate staff. Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein launched an attack on the Central Intelligence Agency, accusing it of searching computers used by staffers investigating CIA interrogation methods. “I have grave concerns that the CIA’s search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution,” Feinstein declared on the Senate floor. She alleged that the CIA may have violated federal law as well as an executive order that bars it from domestic spying, but the agency’s director John Brennan quickly denied the allegations.